Dance, Sing, Love
by emuroo
Summary: Dance as if no one is watching, sing as if no one is listening, love as if you have never been hurt before. RonHermione. Ron knows something about Hermione and she knows something about him. After the battle they talk about their relationship. Oneshot.


Disclaimer: Any characters, places, events, or things that you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling. The quote belongs to someone, but I'm not sure who.

Dance, Sing, Love

Dance as if no one is watching

There were a great many things about Hermione that only a few people knew. One of them was that there was actually something that could get her to stop working on a weekend.

Rain.

As soon as she heard the patter of rain she dropped whatever she was doing. She closed her books, stacked them, and put them away.

She would go quietly to the nearest exit, avoiding others as much as she could (although there was the McGonagall incident…) she remained calm while indoors, but as soon as she exited the castle all composure was lost. She ran towards a hidden spot near the lake, tearing off her socks and shoes as she ran. When she reached her destination she would start spinning, removing all restraints such as headbands or elastics from her hair, letting it fly free.

Then she danced. She twirled, and leapt, laughing joyously. It was her secret though. She never did it on the rare occasions when it Harry and Ron studied with her.

What she didn't know was that someone was watching.

One day in fifth year Ron had been looking for Hermione, hoping to get some help on a particularly hard potions essay. He was about to enter the library when it started to rain. As soon as it did Hermione gathered her belongings. Curious as to why she was stopping her studying, Ron hid, then followed her.

When she reached the lake and started turning Ron was awed. He had never seen her so free. A part of him said that it was because she didn't know that he was there, and that he was invading her privacy. He ignored. This was too beautiful to miss.

The next time that it rained Ron went to the same spot, hiding himself once again. And again Hermione danced.

Sing as if no one is listening.

Ron was a rather open person, but he had one secret. He loved to sing. Occasionally on weekends he would sneak outside and sing. The songs were never real, just things that he came up with one moment and then forgot.

They could be about anything, from frustration with homework, to worry about Harry, to descriptions of birds.

He loved the sound of the music. One of the few people who knew that he was a good singer was his mother. She had tried to convince him to take voice lessons, as she had done in childhood, but he refused. Though he didn't tell her so, the simple fact was that he liked the pure untrained way his voice sounded. And, since he didn't intend to sing for anyone else, the only person whose opinion counted was his.

He loved the days when he would sit outdoors, or walk or stand and sing. It was so wonderful to be free, without being judged.

What he didn't know was that someone was watching him.

It was on a Saturday during fourth year when Hermione went looking for Ron. That boy was always disappearing, and if he didn't get to work on his homework he was never going to pass any of his classes!

After an hour of searching indoors she came to the conclusion that he must be outdoors.

She first checked the most obvious places, such as the quidditch pitch (though she left quickly; the Slytherins were having a practice), the lake, and the big tree. Finally, resigning herself to the fact that she was not going to find her redheaded friend. She walked towards the forest, thinking about what a beautiful day it was. Suddenly she heard a voice. It was faint, but she followed the sound.

As she got nearer to the source she realized that someone was singing. The song was one she had never heard, some sort of nonsense about the giant squid getting lonely.

She had come to the conclusion that the singer was very good, and had been wondering who they could be. She drew closer to the sound, some instinct telling her to remain hidden. She finally saw who the mysterious singer was.

Ron was standing in a small clearing, eyes closed, a look of pure bliss on his face, and beautiful music coming from his mouth. He was more uninhibited than she had ever seen him, clearly not realizing that he had an audience.

She simply sat, listening, unable to move herself, thinking that this was the most beautiful song in the world.

Love as if you have never been hurt before.

Ron and Hermione stood facing each other outdoors on the Hogwarts grounds. The battle was over, and so much had been lost. Many of the fighters were staying at the castle for a few days, including the two of them, Harry, and the rest of the Weasley clan.

There had been a memorial that morning for all who had died. The list of the dead was long, from Colin Creevey, to Lupin, to Fred. Even Bathilda Bagshot and some who had died in the first war were mentioned.

They each looked at each other, not sure what to say. Then Hermione spoke.

"I need to talk to you Ron. I really like- love you. But I'm scared. I don't want to be hurt. If I can be hurt by you when we weren't even together, then how much worse would it be if we were?"

"I hurt you? How? I tend to think that you're the one that did that."

"Of course you did. You started snogging Lav-Lav. I was going to take you to a party, and you started snogging her!"

"Oh, and you didn't do the same thing with Krum?" asked Ron, getting angry.

"You didn't even know that I was a girl until Neville asked me out. If I couldn't go with you why wouldn't I say yes to Krum. At least he noticed that I wasn't a guy!"

And you, the smartest witch of your age, never considered the possibility that I was scared? Hermione!"

"Why would I, with you drooling all over Fleur. You still do it."

"That's not my fault. Maybe you should try doing some research on veela. There wasn't really much that I could do. In case you didn't notice, I regretted asking her as soon as I was away from her."

"You should have stayed away from her if you knew that she was a veela!"

"How was I supposed to know! I wasn't talking to Harry when he found out!" 

"Right. Sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen. We weren't supposed to start fighting." Suddenly she was crying.

Ron looked her rather nervously then put his arms around her. He managed to knock her over in the process. "Er- can I try that again?"

Now laughing slightly through her tears Hermione said, "Yes Ron. Now, this time try not to fall down."

"Right." This time it worked, he held her close to him and, as her tears stopped, started to talk. "I'm sorry about Lavender. It's just, well… You heard about Harry and me catching Ginny and Dean snogging?"

Hermione nodded, and he continued. "Well we started yelling at each other, and she said that the only reason that I minded was that I'd never snogged anyone. Then she said something like 'Harry snogged Cho Chang, Hermione snogged Krum, it's just you that thinks that it's disgusting.' And, I dunno, I guess that on some level I must have known that you'd snogged Krum, but I just got so mad about it, because- because- I wanted to kiss you."

He stopped, looking at her nervously, then went on. "And it felt like I should have been the one with you at the ball. I knew you better and I loved everything about you. I knew so much more about you than he did. He probably doesn't even know about the rain and he wouldn't appreciate it anyway!"

Hermione looked at him, her face full of shock. "You know about that? How? What do you mean appreciate it?"

Ron looked sheepish. "Well, I was looking for you one time, because I had a question to ask, and I was about to go into the library when you came rushing out, so I followed you, because I wanted to know what you were doing. I followed you outside. And you were so beautiful. You were just happy, and you weren't trying to live up to the expectations that you seem to think everyone has, you were just enjoying yourself."

"Oh" was all that Hermione had to say.

Then Ron continued his story. "Anyway, I don't' really know exactly what I was thinking. After the game she came up to me, and sort of grabbed me. And I just went along with it. I was mad at you, both for kissing Krum and for thinking that Harry had to have given me the potion for me to have played so well. And I sort of wanted to make you jealous."

"It worked. That's why I went with McLaggen. I wanted to show you that I didn't care. And I was sort of trying to rub it in your face how great he and Krum were."

"No, really? I hadn't noticed."

"Ha ha, very funny. I was just so mad. She didn't really care about you, all she ever did with you was snog, and it wasn't fair. She didn't love you as much as I did. She wouldn't have cared if she heard you singing."

Now it was Ron's turn to be shocked. "You knew about that? How?"

"I was looking for you because you hadn't done your homework. I had searched the whole castle, and most of the grounds when I heard something. I followed the sound and found you. You were singing about the squid, and it was so lovely. You have such a nice voice."

Ron shrugged, blushing, "It's okay, I guess. I can't believe that you knew that."

"I can't believe that you knew that I dance in the rain. This makes us even," she smiled, "And it was really beautiful. I loved listening to it."

Ron, whose entire face was now red, replied, "Thanks. Your dancing was way better though."

"I disagree, but I really don't' wan to argue about it right now. I wanted to talk to you. About our kiss. I-I-I'd like to go out with you, but you have to promise not to do something like you did with Lavender."

"Of course, but you have to do the same."

"Yeah. Look, let's start fresh. We'll forget what happened before, and we'll focus on now. Forget that we ever got hurt. Deal?"

"Deal."

They smiled at each other, then Ron tentatively leaned in to kiss her. Just like the tale of their love hadn't gone smoothly, this didn't. Somehow he managed to knock her over, falling partly on top of her.

They laughed. When they finally calmed down Hermione said, "Honestly, Ron, does a girl have to do everything herself?" Then she grabbed him, pulling him towards her and kissing him.

It was not the best kiss ever in the history of the world, but it was perfect to them. Somehow it felt as though all of the world's problems were solved and everything was perfect. Even though Ron's brother was dead, and so were Tonks, Lupin, and so many others, for that moment everything was okay.

There would be a lot of mourning and rebuilding to do, but it would be done. And some days, they might get the chance to sing together, or to dance in the rain.

When Ron and Hermione finally got a house of their own one of the first things that they did was put a plaque on the wall. Their friends wondered why they liked those words so much. Liked them so much that they insisted on painting them themselves. Ron and Hermione simply answered that they thought the words fit them very well.

Everyone who entered their home would see the words "Dance as if no one is watching, sing as if no one is listening, love as if you have never been hurt before."

Author's note: I hope that you liked this. Please review, I really want to see what people thought of it. I will respond to all signed reviews. For anyone who has read my Reflections series it would be really great if you could go to my profile and do the poll, I am asking people to say what characters they want reflections on. Thanks for reading.


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